I think the point being made is that we paid for an item that we never received. I appreicate the fact that others are willing to help out, but the fact remains that if you pay for something you should get it. What in the world is the hold up?

Don't forget to update the Core and MD with the same settings(speed, dup) though

I will reset all ports on the 3550 to the default configuration as suggested, but I'll leave the portfast enabled on the client ports.

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sh int afterwards is fine. for both of the interfaces. Lots of Runts and drops are not good.Take a quick look in the syslog as well just to make sure(that all is ok with the 3550).

Not sure how to do a similar in linux though =/ but that will give some hints if this is related to the network which I actually doubt.

(hari posted some nice commands to be run as well)

I plan to reload the server again tonight and try both Hari, and your suggestions.

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Btw, I assume you have everything on the inside of the Core, as recommended?

If you are referring to media directors and all that stuff being on the correct side of the core, then yes. I have followed all recommendations as closely as possible on my configuration.

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Is it easy for you to move(copy) the same Movie to the hdd of the Core and view it from there as well?

Just to easily eliminate eventual troublecausers.

All my movies exist on the core. I use the media directors as well as the core itself to rip movies. I guess I am not sure what you mean?

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Also I posted a while ago about twitchy playback and got the recommendation to not use alpha blending.. Try changing that.(in case you are)

I was a passionate viewer of that thread! as I had hoped that it would also uncover my issue. Immediately after it was suggested, I had turned off the alpha blending, but did not see any improvement. I cried a little inside.

It was raw paranoia that caused me to force the speed & duplex setting as well as the other settings on the switch to begin with. I’ve been screwing with this issue for months; following numerous threads in this forum that I had hoped would help me to resolve my issue. I should not need an enterprise class switch to stream movies… and yet, here I am. (Not complaining!)

Furthermore, I won’t need to mess around with QoS as this switch is dedicated to just the internal media network. I will take your suggestion and reset the port settings for speed and duplex. This was just another example of me needing to verify that I was getting the speed that I was expecting. I had already discovered cat5 patch cables that were not rated for gig speeds causing me headaches.

So for the sh int, do you need me to grab this a few times while a movie is running? Do you just need it off the core, or the media device as well. I’ll do sniffing as well. I appreciate the assistance from all of you.

interface GigabitEthernet0/12switchport mode access (This tells the switch the a computer is attached to this port, vs another switch or router.)bandwidth 10000000 (This manually sets the port to allow the use of maximum bandwith.) speed 1000 (You guessed it. This is tells the switch to run at 1000MB/sec) duplex full (Run at full duplex).

My test media extender lives on port 0/11interface GigabitEthernet0/11 switchport mode access duplex fullspanning-tree portfast (this is essential for PXE clients as it disables the 45 second port diagnostic and spanning tree checks that each port typically goes through when a new device comes on line.)

no service password-encryption (in the terminal configuration of a cisco switch, (config t) you can specify whether or not to encrypt all passwords.)

I'll have the rest of that infor for you as soon as I get home. I agree that DVD streaming should not require jumbo frames, but at the same time, I can't ignore the preformance gain that I saw after installing it.

Johanr- The freezing up is randam, and is less frequent with the Cisco switch in place.

Didn't you know, when you start plugging $4000 into a server, it develops a gender? And it has to be a woman, because it drives me F"ing crazy, and yet I keep coming back for more.

Yes a 3550 is an extremely loud switch. But we have a (almost full) 72" server rack in the basement that houses all of this stuff so that it can be sealed off from the rest of the house. Thus noise is not an issue. I am a Cisco guy at heart, so it wasn't difficult to justify the purchase (Ebay ~ $600).

HW: Nope, the core is just that, a filthy huge machine dedicated to a single purpose in life. It is running LMCE and that is it. I could use help with monitoring resources though, as I am not well versed in Linux either. I even turned off the (Autostart Media Director) so that it is only running as a core.

Network: This is what I am going to try tonight, I'll set up port mirroring and see what is going on.

Raid: I chose raid 5 to maximize my storage capacity, while still allowing for redundancy. Raid 0 is out since it offers no protection in the event of a lost drive. I could use raid 1 or 10, but then I go from having 7TB of storage to 4TB. I have given this a bunch of thought, and if I don't see anything using the packet sniffer, I guess that is what I will try next.